An early 20th century structure in Greenwich, New York, houses generations of firefighting memorabilia that some residents are hoping can help inspire the next generation of volunteer crews.
Originally built in 1904, the two-story brick building that once served as Greenwich's jail in addition to its volunteer firehouse now stands frozen in time.
This time of year, the Rough and Ready building also stands literally frozen.
And while the community recently crowdsourced nearly $40,000 to replace the decaying windows in the old firehouse, there’s still no central heating — or central anything for that matter.
“Three feet from the kitchen sink is the toilet. I can't prepare my food and get rid of it in the same room,” said Gary St. Mary.
Gary St. Mary has been a volunteer firefighter for nearly five decades. His father before him was a firefighter and now his son is a firefighter.
He’s among a handful of community members vying to turn the building into a full-blown museum, in part, to help inspire young visitors to join the long lineage of volunteer firefighters serving the Washington County village.
“It's beautiful, the condition that it was in. It needed some love, we gave it some love. But as far as structural, we haven't done anything to change the structure of the building, or, you know, layout. It's all the way it was originally,” said St. Mary.
The to-be museum already has an impressive collection of vintage firefighting equipment, from hand-pulled hose carts to buckets with their bottoms rounded as an early theft-prevention method.
Most striking, however, is the intact, hand-pumped fire engine.
“This unit always went to the water source, whether it was a stream, a pond, the river, whatever. And then the guys on these hose carts would hook up, run to the fire, get the nozzles on the hoses, send a runner back to say, 'okay, you can start pumping.' And then, if they didn't have enough guys yet. What they do is they pump up, pump down and step down. So hopefully by the time they got to the other end of this thing, there was a line back here to give you a break. If not, you got right back in line and got pumping again. That's how these guys all had those barrel chests. They didn't have to go the gym to work out back then,” said Doriski.
Greg Doriski is president of the Rough and Ready Engine and Hose Company No. 2 – the organization working to conserve the building, which was a working fire station until the mid-1900s. Volunteer firefighters currently work out of a station half-a-mile down the road.
The 28-foot-long engine weighs in at 4,700 pounds and was purchased by the Rough and Ready Engine Company in 1899 for $800. Large brakes on each side allowed for up to 60 men to pump it at once — picture a massive seesaw. An extension of rope off the front allows as many people as possible to help pull it.
A giant brass orb sits in the middle. St. Mary explains it’s purpose.
“So the big brass ball on the top is, if you have a modern well at your house, 10-1, you have what they call a pressure tank. And that is basically what that big brass ball is. The water would come in the bottom of it, try to compress the air in the top of it, and it would smooth out the stream of water because it's a positive displacement pump. It's a piston pump, and a piston will spurt water. When the piston pushes it spurts the water, and then there's a lull between the other piston pushing and trying to compress the air. The bulb smooths it out so it's less spurting,” said St. Mary.
The engine was refitted in 1926 for competition and, in its prime, sent a 1-inch stream of water 232 feet.
The building's first floor also hosts a variety of antique firefighter toys and early fire extinguishers, and visitors can scan QR codes to be sent to the museum’s YouTube page for in-depth explanations.
There’s also a selection of alarms, including a giant triangle.
And if you look closely, you’ll see a line of rope running up through the first and second floors to the roof, where, back in the day, it could be pulled to ring a bell.
And, yes, they kept the bell, too.
The second floor has two pianos, marching band instruments, and was where firefighters held dances and concerts. It’s also where volunteers have on display a variety of items belonging to the village’s chapter of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows – think a more peculiar Elks, Masons, or Knights of Columbus.
“Their purpose was to protect the widows and orphans, to bury the dead, to help each other in want. To counsel each other in difficulty, to improve and elevate the character of man...” said St. Mary.
There’s a collection of Odd Fellow memorabilia, including a casket with a model skeleton named George that St. Mary and Doriski found under a staircase when they opened up the firehouse in 2020.
“They were a faith-based organization, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Their insignia was three chain links, faith, love and truth, okay, and they protected the and educated the orphans and, you know, unwanted children. They – back in the 1800s this really surprised me reading through their records – they provided a home for the aged, okay, and in the 1800s they had sick pay,” said St. Mary.
Doriski tells WAMC they’re working through the process to become a registered 501(c)3, and they are finalists for the current round of NY Forward funds, which the state has set aside to help revitalize smaller and rural communities.
“We've been doing it for a year. We were one of the finalists to make it, and we've put in for a bathroom, handicapped bathroom, water, sewer, a new power panel, heating and air conditioning, and a stair chair, a lift chair to get people up and down the stairs. So, if we get any money at all, that's what our projects are. And then depending on what New York State deems we're worthy of receiving, we'll go from there.” said Doriski.
St. Mary’s got high hopes for the building and the prospects of turning it into a proper museum. Mostly though, he just likes sharing the village’s firefighting history.
“Well, volunteer fireman age is 16 in New York State, 18 and you can go interior and actually fight fires. But yeah, I would enjoy educating the younger generations, whether it be school students or college students or just Joe off the street,” said St. Mary.
Doriski says when they’re open regularly during the summers they can get up to 15 visitors a day. With the planned improvements he expects that number to keep growing.
“People should care because this is firefighting history. Any firefighter, once it's in their blood, they're going to die being a firefighter. That's just the way it is. And when we're out to the Washington County Fair, we have a lot of other firemen that from come from other departments that, again, we didn't know what was here,” said Doriski.
